DESIGN BRIEF

Ling-Tempco-Vought's bid for the US Navy's 1963 VAL design competition was a brilliant adaptation of the
F-8 Crusader fighter. This aircraft would become a highly-successful replacement for the famous Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. DoD attempted to interest the Air Force in this aircraft during the design stage, and as the development of the brutish A-7 Corsair II attack aircraft quickly proceeded, FY 1967 funds were included for the Air Force's A-7D variant. By the end of that year USN pilots of VA-147 were flying the Corsair II in combat in Vietnam.

USAF SERVICE INTRODUCTION

The 511 TFS became the first combat-capable USAF A-7 unit on 2 March 1971. Based at Myrtle Beach AFB, SC., as part of the 354 TFW, an establishment that had returned to South Carolina in 15 June 1970, after a series of complex deployments and reassignments. The 354th absorbed the resources of the 4454th TFW, which had been flying T/AT-33 aircraft and was working up on the A-7.

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